A year-end best-films list is an invitation to an argument. A
decade-end list? That's like starting a barroom brawl. Ten years is
a long time. Do I go by what I thought then, when I saw the films,
or by what I think now, when I tally my favorites? Some of the
films on this list didn't even crack my yearly top 10 lists over
the past decade. How can they make the cut on the big kahuna?

The answer, to borrow the name from a current holiday movie:
It's complicated. More to the point, it's very unscientific. These
are simply the films that stuck with me the longest, that should
stand the test of time or that knocked me out upon recent repeat
viewings. Some are acknowledged classics; others are more eccentric
and personal choices. And hopefully they have nothing in common
except one man's very subjective judgment of high quality.

Let the fighting begin.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, directed by
Michel Gondry) - Some films reinvent the visual grammar of movies;
others connect on a deeply human level. This loopy but profound
romance from Gondry and Charlie Kaufman did it all. No movie of the
decade had more fun playing with cinematic form. In telling the
story of star-crossed lovers (Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet) who
erase themselves from each other's minds, Eternal Sunshine mixes
heady ideas of memory and time into a visual poem about the
necessity and durability of love. It's the most daring romantic
comedy since Annie Hall.

2. Wall-E (2008, Andrew Stanton) - This slot could have gone to
Up, or The Incredibles or Finding Nemo. The point is that no one
makes movies with more heart, wit and staggeringly perfect
execution than the Pixar gang. Wall-E, with its dialogue-free
opening sequence that plays like silent sci-fi and its future-shock
vision of humanity in lazy decline, just happened to break a little
more ground than its cohort. Too few movies are willing to make it
new; Pixar does it every time out.

3. The Departed (2006, Martin Scorsese) - So much of filmmaking
is about energy, that kick in the pants and swirl of images and
sound that make you devour each scene as you brace for the next
one. The Departed is a slingshot of a movie, a strutting
masterpiece with movie stars, finely calibrated tension, violent
street poetry and fiendish criminal personality. That it's only the
fourth- or fifth-best Scorsese film speaks more to his career than
to any Departed shortcomings.

4. Yi Yi (A One and a Two) (2000, Edward Yang) - The first
international film on the list crosses boundaries of language and
culture to say something critical about the alienation and common
dreams that define our times. It's about a Taipei family struggling
to find strands of meaning amid everyday life. But the themes of
love, loss and uncertainty are conveyed with an empathy and clarity
that resonate as deeply in Topeka as in Taiwan.

5. Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch) - Mulholland marks the
point where Lynch's free-associative logic dovetailed with his
interest in telling stories (if you're interested in what happens
when that interest wanes, see Inland Empire). This is a hypnotic
trip to the heart of Hollywood myth-making, featuring an
easy-to-underestimate star turn from Naomi Watts.

6. The Fog of War (2003, Errol Morris) - The '00s saw an
explosion in the popularity and accessibility of documentary, but
Morris remains the form's philosopher king. Fog is more than a
candid look at Vietnam War architect Robert S. McNamara, or even
the shortcomings of the New Frontier and the Great Society. It's a
haunting glimpse at the lies we tell ourselves to justify what we
wish to be true.

7. There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson) - It's
capitalism vs. God in the ultimate grudge match. But it's really
much more than that. Like the precious oil that gurgles up through
its arid ground, Blood is a primordially American and muscular epic
that calls to mind the best work of Stanley Kubrick. Big, brave
filmmaking; that it ever got financed and produced in this country
is still a minor shock.

8. Nobody Knows (2004, Hirokazu Koreeda) - The Italian
neorealists, especially Vittorio De Sica, were famous for their
dignified portraits of childhood's fragility. This Japanese gem,
about resourceful siblings forced to fend for themselves in a Tokyo
apartment, is cut from the same cloth. It's even more tough-minded
and unflinching than its precedents, but somehow just as
tender.

9. Memento (2000, Christopher Nolan) - Yeah, it's a puzzle
movie. What do you expect from a chronological brainteaser about a
guy (Guy Pearce) who can't make new memories? But Memento's genius
lies in the way it forces you, along with its protagonist, to live
in the absolute present tense. It picks you up, shakes you around
and leaves you wanting more. Thrilling, beguiling and
addictive.

10. Sexy Beast (2000, Jonathan Glazer) - We all need our guilty
pleasures. For me this one isn't even particularly guilty. Glazer's
debut feature, about a psycho con (Ben Kingsley) sent to lure a
retired henchman (Ray Winstone) back into the game, has style and
poetry to burn. The only English crime film that will make you want
to purchase an Italian villa.